Something You Should Know about Business Strategy

August 23, 2010

Interview with Adrian Ott, author of the book The 24-Hour Customer: New Rules for Winning in a Time-Starved, Always-Connected Economy

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Mike Carruthers:
In the attempt to win new customers businesses tend to focus on; price, product quality, customer service, that type of thing…

Adrian Ott:
But they don’t think about the time constraints, the customers have. And if you can time slice or time shift your product sometimes you’re going to reach some people that you haven’t reached before.
 

July 13, 2010

Interview with Ivan Misner, author of the book Networking Like a Pro: Turning Contacts into Connections

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Mike Carruthers:
Everyone who has a job has heard about the importance of networking.

Ivan Misner:
And networking has been around a long time but it’s been practiced badly. Whether people don’t understand it and the reason for that is that we don’t teach this in colleges and universities. We give kids bachelor’s degrees in marketing – they don’t have a clue how to network and they totally confuse networking with direct selling.
 

Ivan Misner, author of the book Networking Like a Pro...

You go to a business mixer somebody walks up to you and says, “Hi, my name’s John, you know we should be doing business.” And they try to sell rather than build relationships. Networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. It’s about cultivating professional relationships with other people and developing trust. People prefer people they know and trust.

How do you build those relationships? Ivan says it’s basically a 3-step process called V, C, P.

Stands for visibility, credibility, and profitability – you first have to be visible in the community; people have to know who you are and what you do. Then you have to establish credibility. Credibility is where people know who you are, they know what you do and they know you’re good at it. And only when you’ve gotten to credibility can you get to profitability where people know who you are, they know what you do, they know you’re good at it and they’re willing to pass referrals to you on an ongoing reciprocal basis. Where networking goes bad is where people try to jump ahead.

Jumping ahead is tempting because effective networking takes time. How much time?

It varies by profession but as a rule we tell people you’re looking at 6 months or more.
 

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here

June 3, 2010

Interview with Wendy Ulrich, co-author of the book The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

Mike Carruthers:
How can you make the time you spend at work more meaningful and more enjoyable?

Wendy Ulrich:
One of the things that we see in the research today that brings meaning into people's lives is good relationships at work.
 

June 8, 2010

Interview with Tony Schwartz, author of the book The Way We're Working Isn't Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance

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Mike Carruthers:
To be effective, productive, and to maintain your energy level there appears to be some wisdom in the idea that you should pace yourself.

Tony Schwartz:
What the research really tells us about the ideal way to work is to alternate periods of high focus with periods of renewal.